History

Laval was originally inhabited by Mohawks before the French arrived.[citation needed] The first European Settlers were Jesuits in 1636 when they were granted a seigneury there. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670. In 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales. The first municipalities on the island were created in 1845, after nearly 200 years of a rural nature. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose, was incorporated as a village in 1850, and remained as the main community for the remainder of the century. With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Laval's first city in 1912, followed by L'Abord-à-Plouffe being granted village status three years later. Laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year on its tourist-based economy from Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the following years, due to its proximity to Montreal that made it an ideal suburb.

To deal with problems caused by urbanization, amalgamations occurred; L'Abord-à-Plouffe amalgamated with Renaud and Saint-Martin creating the city of Chomedey in 1961. The amalgamation turned out to be so successful for the municipalities involved that the Quebec government decided to amalgamate the whole island into a single city of Laval in 1965. Laval was named after the first owner of Île Jésus, François de Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. At the time, Laval had a population of 170,000. Laval became a Regional County Municipality in 1980. Prior to that, it was the County of Laval.[2]

The 14 municipalities, which existed prior to the incorporation of the amalgamated City of Laval on August 6, 1965, were:

In 2001, the population of Laval was an estimated 343,005, a 3.8 percent increase from the earlier census in 1996. Women constitute 51.44% of the total population. Children under 14 years of age total 18.6%, while those of retirement age (65 years of age and older) number 13.2% resulting in a median age of 38.7 years.[3]

In 2001, 15.48% of Laval's population was born outside of Canada, a lower percentage than the national average, but higher than that for Quebec. Many immigrants have come to the city from the French-speaking Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Those of indigenous origin constitute 0.22%, while those who are visible minorities (non-white/European) number 8.68%, and are chiefly Black Canadian, Arab, and Hispanic. Like Quebec as a whole, the city is overwhemingly Christian (90.71%), particularly Roman Catholic (81.09%), while Protestant and Orthodox groups constitute the remainder of the population. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and others total less than 5% of the population combined.

As of March 2009, Laval was the main destination for immigrants to Canada, according to a study released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The report says that between 2001 and 2006, the immigrant population grew by 40% in Laval, while the national average stood at 15% [1].

Just over 10% of immigrants arriving in Laval speak neither English nor French at home.

Laval is not quite as linguistically diverse as neighbouring Montreal. The 2006 census found that, counting both single and multiple responses, French was spoken as a mother tongue by 68.4% of the population, and was spoken most often at home by 73.8% of Laval residents.[4] Counting single responses only, the next most common mother tongues were English (6.9%), Italian (4.4%), Greek and Arabic (3.9% each), Spanish (2.2%) and Armenian (1.8%).[5]

Government

Municipal politics

As of 2009, Gilles Vaillancourt is the mayor of the city of Laval. He has been in office since 1989.[6] Vaillancourt's party, the Parti PRO des Lavallois, was born in 1980. Vaillancourt took over as head of the party just before the 1989 municipal elections.[7]

Economy

Laval's diverse economy is centred around the technology, pharmaceutical, industrial and retail sectors. It has many pharmaceutical laboratories but also stone quarries and a persistent agricultural sector. Long seen as a bedroom community, Laval has diversified its economy, especially in the retail sector, developing numerous shopping malls, warehouses and various retail stores. Laval has four different industrial parks.[9]

The first is Industrial Park Centre, in the heart of Laval at the corner of St. Martin West and Industriel Blvd. It is One of the largest municipal industrial parks in Quebec, the Industrial Park Centre boasts the highest concentration of manufacturing companies in Laval; 1,024 at last count, and 22,378 employees. The park still has 1,300,643 m² of space available.

The second, the Autoroute 25 Industrial Park is at the crossroads of the metropolitan road network. Inaugurated in 2001, this new industrial municipal space has been a tremendous success, boasting an 80% occupancy rate. Laval is studying the possibility of expanding this park in the next few years.

The third, known as Industrial Park East, is in the neighbourhood of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. This park has reached full capacity with a 100% occupancy rate. Industrial Park East is currently part of a municipal program to revitalize municipal services and public utilities. Laval is working with a private developer on an expansion project for the park that should be announced in the near future.

The fourth industrial park, the Laval Science and High Technology Park is located along Rivière des Prairies and Autoroute 15. It is an internationally renowned science campus that houses the Biotech City and the Information Technology Development Centre (ITDC). The Laval Science and High Technology Park is a beacon of the metropolitan economy, in an environment befitting the best technopolises in the world. Nearly 500,000 square metres (5,380,000 sq ft) of space are available for development. The Biotech City spans the entire territory of the Laval Science and High Technology Park and is a unique concept in Canada in that its residents comprise both universities and companies.

Public transit

Metro

In April 2007, the Montreal Metro was extended to Laval with three stations. The long-awaited stations were begun in 2003 and completed in April 2007, two months ahead of the revised schedule, at a cost of $803 million, funded entirely by the Quebec government. The stations are Cartier, De La Concorde, and Montmorency. The arrival of the metro in Laval was long awaited as it was first promised in the 1960s.

Public transit users must purchase the $109 per month (2009) TRAM-3 card to access the metro from Laval's three new stations or pay $2.75 per trip towards Montreal since regular Montreal tickets and the CAM pass are not valid at the three new stations.

On July 22, 2007, the mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, announced his wish to loop the Orange line from Montmorency to Cote-Vertu stations with the addition of six new stations (three in Laval and another three in Montreal). He proposes that Transports Quebec, the provincial transport department, set aside $100M annually to fund the project, which is expected to cost upwards of $1.5 billion [2].

Buses

Montmorency Terminus

See the Société de transport de Laval page for the public transit system. The STL's network consists of 35 regular lines, two rush hour lines, two trainbus lines, three express lines, one community circuit and several taxi lines.

The AMT and the City of Laval have developed a reserved bus and taxi lane on Notre-Dame Boulevard between Vincent Massey Street and Place Alton-Goldbloom and another on De la Concorde Blvd between De l'Avenir and Laval Blvds, as well as between Ampere Ave and Roanne St. These reserved lanes (Notre-Dame and De la Concorde are the same boulevard but change name where they meet under Autoroute 15) opened shortly after October 31, 2007.